Plotlines

The beginning of the second season has an altered and slightly confused feel. This is not only because Tom is still present somewhere, but also because Liz has to hide. Reddington too, of course, but that’s not really something new for him. We’ve also gained Samar Navabi as a team member. Naturally, she isn’t just a new agent from a foreign intelligence agency; she also has a connection to Reddington, which gives the whole thing another mysterious touch.

In the last quarter, maybe even in the last third, of the previous season, Reddington also changed. While you know he’s already been through a lot in his life, we learn about his wife, or ex-wife, and realize that the events don’t directly break him, but you notice that he has a much shorter fuse than at the very beginning. He lets the ruthless side come out more and comes a little closer to his reputation, at least that’s my impression.

An organization that is only called the Syndicate has also received a mention by now, and it’s becoming clear that several organizations or associations are fighting against each other here. This is a difference from the first season because there were only two fronts, the good guys and the bad guys. Now there are the good guys, who aren’t all morally on the same side, the bad guys in multiple versions and different execution, and then those we don’t even know exist yet.

The search for a daughter, I don’t know exactly whether it was a nice twist or somehow just annoying, because in the second season you can already notice a little that some things are repeated here and there. Precisely this father-daughter dynamic, which is brought to light again and again. Here it’s suddenly no longer Reddington’s daughter, but the daughter of Berlin, who they’ve been after all this time.

Then we suddenly see what happened to Tom, and it doesn’t take long before they start telling things backward. That’s also a narrative style that occurs in almost every crime or thriller series if it runs long enough. It often gives the impression that you’re clinging to a kind of “How should an episode be structured?” script. There are many such structures, and most of them have been around since the beginning of time. For this reason, most of them are so incredibly tiring!

But we’re also served up with some Hollywood presence again, and this time it’s about Peter Fonda, even though his screen time is kept relatively low. Shortly after that, there’s another firecracker, because we get Ron Perlman as the bad guy! I miss Ron Perlman very much, especially his role as Hellboy and of course Hannibal Chau from Pacific Rim! He has something rough and impetuous about him, which Hollywood could really use right now.

The series demands a little in the second season that you make a decision. Either Team Elizabeth or Team Tom. So I’m definitely Team Elizabeth, and nothing changes that, because Tom gets more and more annoying, at least that’s my feeling. He is incredibly exhausting because the spy in him keeps emerging, but many around him still build on him and trust him!

Here, too, there are again “connections” to other series. Once with Omid Abtahi to American Gods (and other series) and David Strathairn to The Expanse. As before, some kind of family tree and series connections would be something cool. You can then fill in gaps with little stories.

I once had the idea to make a Twitter account and connect actors and their roles there and call it “before.” Then name the actor and make connections, from his current role to one that no one talks about anymore because it’s too far in the past. For example, Jon Favreau. “Before Happy Hogan became Tony Stark’s bodyguard, he was known as Peter Becker, worked as a software developer, and was on his way to becoming a UFC champion.”

I always find it quite funny what connections open up here. Well, just an idea, the effort is too much for me right now, so I never pursued it further.

The product placement has somehow also increased, at least that’s my feeling. For example, the car brand is already a fixed size in such series, but in The Blacklist, the Sony logo on the screens also always catches the eye, and Asus also likes to join in from the second season.

Episode 12 of the second season has a beautiful song in the background when storming the church, even though it is a kind of hymn. Nevertheless, I always find such music quite interesting, because there are sites that keep lists of the songs that are used in series. Perfect if you want to expand your playlist a little, or are looking for something new.

The above-mentioned structures in the narrative are also characterized by the fact that there is always someone in the series who gets the most out of it. There’s always someone who gets hit even harder than everyone else from the main cast. In CSI: New York, for example, that’s Danny Messer, or in Star Trek: Voyager, it’s Ensign Kim. Here in The Blacklist, it’s Ressler, because even though the others also get hit pretty hard, he always gets one more, especially the tablet addiction and his therapy.